Forest attended the speech (bringing three friends along to add to the roughly 80 folks in attendance) and took advantage of the open networking time to talk with folks from MN Citizen’s Climate Lobby, Vote Climate, MN Green Party, and Honor the Earth folks tabling there.
Alternative Radio was also there and Paul’s speech will be broadcast nationally.
***Update: to get a PDF of the speech, please contact CSP Co-coordinator, Forest Jahnke (forestjahnke@gmail.com or 608-632-2183)***
Paul noted that, judging by the activism he has seen in the environmental movement so far, it seems like most people are operating on the assumption that we have a democratic system set up to be participatory and responsive to our needs. He disagrees with this assumption. It is Paul’s assertion that the system was built from the outset to protect elite interests, this has only gotten worse over the years, and (while he won’t say that going to hearings or writing to legislators is bad) he sees the work of restoring (or perhaps establishing for the first time) democracy and local sovereignty as primary, if we are to accomplish much of anything. He referenced the abolitionists, suffragists, and civil rights movement as examples of times in the US when civil disobedience to unjust laws was necessary to force rights into existence.
After a brief over-view of the immanent effects of catastrophic climate destabilization (Paul thinks “climate change” sounds too natural and benign) and quoting from Naomi Cline’s book “This Changes Everything”, Paul made a powerful case that the community rights strategy addresses the root of the problems that prevent our communities from adapting to our rapidly changing world. We must solve our democracy crisis before we are able to solve our climate crisis.
Paul also laid out a list of potential ordinances that could be written once a community bill of rights was in place to combat climate change and transition to a sustainable economy. The list can be found at: http://paulcienfuegos.com/community-rights-ordinance-ideas-tackling-climate-change